Shipyard Signature Smashed Blueberry helps homebrew an Oatmeal Stout

Today is the nexus of two ideas I hatched weeks ago; buying a fruit beer actually made with fruit and not syrup and brewing my first dark beer. My spidey senses are tingling

First the beer. From the same brewery that brought you the delicious seasonal Smashed Pumpkin (smashed-pumpkin), Shipyard introduces another fruit infused beer, Smashed Blueberry.

A little yeast starter goes a long way

It's a whopping 9% blueberry beer that lies somewhere between a porter and scotch ale. There's a lot going on in this, coffee and chocolate notes and a bitterness at the end that takes away from the blueberry, which is surprisingly subtle. I feel like this is a little "Midsummer Night's Dream" in a way, the dark chocolate and fruit mix together in a moody way. David isn't a fan, but I'm enjoying this latest entry. Will I buy it again? Probably not, it didn't appeal to me that much, but I'm happy that I experienced it. TRANSFORMERS rating.  I would buy this again and pair it with food, duck or lamb. That would be really interesting.


Brew day is upon us! I began a yeast starter (above) two days ago and picked up the supplies yesterday. The apartment smelled like malt when I walked into the door, which is such an appetizing aroma. I'm working on my third partial mash home brew today and I'm still learning the process. One of the tubes in the sparge cooler popped out and 180 degree water poured out all over my hand, burning it decently. I fudged up on another aspect, which made me angrier at myself than the water cooler, so that cooler is in the clear...for now.

Untitled Oatmeal Stout

Here is a link to the recipe that is reprinted below: Oatmeal Stout. This is a Walker original recipe:


Malt Extract:     Pale 3 lbs
                       

Grain Bill:         American Two-Row Pale 4 lbs

(8.5lbs)            Flaked Oats 1.5 lbs

                        Munich Malt 1 lb
                        Chocolate Malt 12 oz
                        90 L Crystal Malt 12 oz
                        Cara Pils 10 oz
                        Roasted Barley 8 oz
                        Special B Malt 4 oz

                                 

Hop Schedule: Northdown (7.5%) 1.5 oz at 60 mins
                                
Yeast:            White Labs London Ale (WLP013) 
                 
My other mistake was I misunderstood how much water to mash and sparge with, so while my original gravity was 1.065, it turned out to be 1.056, which means I will have about 5.5% alcohol and 28.2 IBU's (previously it would be 6.1%). I thought at the time this would be a huge loss, but, not really. I had to take about a gallon of wort out of the boil kettle and there was less efficiency for starch extraction during mashing. Usually you want to hit between 70% 75%. The pro's do it way better, of course. I hit 55%. Stupid math skills getting in the way of fun again.


The color is going to be 42 SRM, which is black as a moonless night. It's going to look great. What's interesting about the hop schedule with stouts, is that you don't use any flavoring or aroma hops, just bittering to balance out the malt. By excluding hops later in the boil, more of the roasted malt is exhibited. Not all breweries follow that rule of thumb, but it's pretty standard.


Failure to brew on Sunday resulted in an unavoidable late Thursday night. We didn't even start cooling the wort until after midnight. I started boiling water at 7:15pm.

We finished around 1am and cleaned up and then shot the sh*t till late.Not the smartest of moves to do on a school night, but sometimes the Chappelle show comes on, home brews are opened and you start talking about life and suddenly the clock reads 4am. Worth it. 

Shipyard (Signature) Smashed Pumpkin - Gimmie Some Spice!

Hearing good things about this from beverage salesman is one thing; tasting is another. This is the one everyone recommended. However, the reviews online are as split as my and David's opinions:

Pumpkin week officially closes, with Smashed Pumpkin on the right (Dogfish Head not seen here)

The pumpkin taste is light and well rounded. I applaud the brewers for not overwhelming the pumpkin flavor, like so many others have done.

This is where people disagree. SPICE. For me, the Three Wise Men visited the brewery and dumped their Magi spices into the batch - cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. Apart, they were nothing, but together they delivered a Chuck Norris round house kick to my taste buds. It felt like the 4th of July in my mouth. I love spices and these three together epitome the season of Fall for me (or lack thereof in SoCal).  Maybe I'm nostalgic, but damn, I want more. I want this during Thanksgiving with my turkey and yams, I want it at Christmas as I roast endangered nuts over an open fire. For being excellent and unique, you're one of the BAD BOYS.